The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[stonykill]

New post on the thing. See it HERE.

or

 

[hotrodflash]

Got any answers for this problem? I have also posted on the injury thread thought I would see if any old timers or natural chicken keepers had any responses that might help me.

I have a two year old hen who I noticed yesterday she wasn’t acting right. She is wild and won’t let us touch her so I don’t handle her much. I finally caught her today and found her problem. She has at least an inch deep hole on her hip...close to her vent. Well there are maggots in it. I However, the wound doesnt look fresh. Even thought i dont touch her I do look my hens over every day. I called our vet and he said all we could do is clean her up with dawn dish detergent and if it doesn’t help put her down. I had already cleaned her up and separated her from the flock but I can’t get the maggots out. I am pretty sure she is too far gone and is going to have to be put down but I am just concerned as to why this would happen and want to prevent this problem from happing to the rest of my flock. This particular hen was missing on Tuesday when I put them up for the afternoon in their run. When my husband shut the coop door that night he said somehow she found her way back in. We just wonder if something got after her and hurt her and she got away or if when she got back in she scratched herself but we never noticed a wound on her. She started acting funny yesterday. This hen also keeps nasty feathers covered in fecal matter on her bottom. She isn’t the only hen that has that problem but not all of my hens have that problem either. This has been going on for about a year now on and off...they had worms so i thought the nasty feathers was due to this so I have wormed them a few times and cleaned them up and I have also had to clipped off the nasty feathers but some of them are just nasty again the next day. I am going to take a fecal sample to the vet to be sure they don’t have any bacterial problems as some one had mentioned it could be vent gleet but i really dont think it is that. I did put a spray on there rear ends every day for a week before i knew for sure they had worms the spray is supposed to help with bacteria, yeast and all wounds and it didnt help either. I cant remember the name but it was something like vetacylin....They free range for most of the day and I check them every so often for mites and lice , I dust them down if I find any but they also have dusting holes in the yard and I have one in the run for when they can’t get out. I clean out the coop every 3-6 months. Its use less to clean up their rear ends because it’s just nasty the next day. I feed them layer pellets, a little scratch, Black oil sun flower seeds, and kitchen scraps and i dont give them any rotten food.... every so often I put probiotics and electrolytes in their water and I give them apple cider vinegar too. Does this sound like maybe she hurt herself and the flies laid their eggs in the wound or flies laid some eggs on her messy feathers? I really don’t know what else I could do to keep them healthy or keep there bottom feathers from staying nasty. What do you do?

Maggots in the wound is not necessarily a bad thing, maggots only eat dead flesh, so they will clean the wound so it can heal from the inside out. I would flush the wound with water and see what it looks like inside. If it is clean, apply triple antibiotic ointment heavily, making sure to get it down in the wound. If she doesn't get better then make a decision from there.

 

[Bulldogma]

No I went and picked them up at hatchery. They are 4 days old . They are on pine shavings. 24% chick starter tomorrow will start FF. 50 are cxr and15 B O

Are they getting into the waterer? What kind of waterer do you have? And you're certain the bedding is completely dry?

 

[Bulldogma]

or

LOL! Stinker! Now I have the Adam's Family theme song running through my head!

And now everyone else does too!

 

[Sally8]

I was going to toss them but it was another 6 days until garbage pick up. I did not want to risk the smell.

And do they ever smell. DH was helping me after a hatch and I had a couple eggs that hadn't hatched and I knew they were rotten and told him so. And I quote " Make sure you put these in the trash carefully and take the bag out to the big trash." Not a minute later I heard a noise and he said, it just broke open on it's own. (I heard him throw it in the trash). I smelled that smell all night! And DH carries them oh, so tenderly now. lol! I do know they can explode.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Hey speaking of kefir, we do milk kefir, and it's the chickens' absolute favourite treat EVER. They all love it like crazy. Very good for them too I will be continuing.. Though our milk is organic and pricey, so it's not a frequent treat.. But that will all change when we breed Alice and get goat milk for kefir!

I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE GOING TO MILK HER!!!! I'm so excited for you

Quote: My kind of humor

 

[Pozees]

Are they getting into the waterer? What kind of waterer do you have? And you're certain the bedding is completely dry?

I wondered the same. Might try either putting paper towel over the shavings, or putting down puppy pads/chux, and make sure the waterer is up on a patio block or 2x6 or something that puts it above their feet. If it looks like they are walking through the water and you haven't already, put marbles or small, clean stones in the water.

Are they acting sick at all? Lethargic or depressed? Are they all eating well?

 

[Pozees]

My kind of humor

X2

 

[Leahs Mom]

Got any answers for this problem? I have also posted on the injury thread thought I would see if any old timers or natural chicken keepers had any responses that might help me.

I have a two year old hen who I noticed yesterday she wasn’t acting right. She is wild and won’t let us touch her so I don’t handle her much. I finally caught her today and found her problem. She has at least an inch deep hole on her hip...close to her vent. Well there are maggots in it. I However, the wound doesnt look fresh. Even thought i dont touch her I do look my hens over every day. I called our vet and he said all we could do is clean her up with dawn dish detergent and if it doesn’t help put her down. I had already cleaned her up and separated her from the flock but I can’t get the maggots out. I am pretty sure she is too far gone and is going to have to be put down but I am just concerned as to why this would happen and want to prevent this problem from happing to the rest of my flock. This particular hen was missing on Tuesday when I put them up for the afternoon in their run. When my husband shut the coop door that night he said somehow she found her way back in. We just wonder if something got after her and hurt her and she got away or if when she got back in she scratched herself but we never noticed a wound on her. She started acting funny yesterday. This hen also keeps nasty feathers covered in fecal matter on her bottom. She isn’t the only hen that has that problem but not all of my hens have that problem either. This has been going on for about a year now on and off...they had worms so i thought the nasty feathers was due to this so I have wormed them a few times and cleaned them up and I have also had to clipped off the nasty feathers but some of them are just nasty again the next day. I am going to take a fecal sample to the vet to be sure they don’t have any bacterial problems as some one had mentioned it could be vent gleet but i really dont think it is that. I did put a spray on there rear ends every day for a week before i knew for sure they had worms the spray is supposed to help with bacteria, yeast and all wounds and it didnt help either. I cant remember the name but it was something like vetacylin....They free range for most of the day and I check them every so often for mites and lice , I dust them down if I find any but they also have dusting holes in the yard and I have one in the run for when they can’t get out. I clean out the coop every 3-6 months. Its use less to clean up their rear ends because it’s just nasty the next day. I feed them layer pellets, a little scratch, Black oil sun flower seeds, and kitchen scraps and i dont give them any rotten food.... every so often I put probiotics and electrolytes in their water and I give them apple cider vinegar too. Does this sound like maybe she hurt herself and the flies laid their eggs in the wound or flies laid some eggs on her messy feathers? I really don’t know what else I could do to keep them healthy or keep there bottom feathers from staying nasty. What do you do?

I wanted to comment a little on the "nasty bottoms".

I sounds like it might be gleet which is a FUNGAL infection and won't respond to antibiotics. People here have been having great success with a product called NuStock. Most of us haven't been able to find it locally and have had to order it on line, but the consensus from those that have used it for gleet is that it works really well to clear up vent gleet.

Now, of course, if it IS vent gleet, you will likely need to address the issues that have contributed to that by changing some of your practices, but in the short-term, you can treat what you have and make the changes to help prevent it in the future!

Here are a couple of links that may be helpful for you to read:

I'd encourage you to read the whole story of the "Gnarly Bunch". You can find it here: http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/healing-gb.html

Here is a link to the product, NuStock: http://www.amazon.com/Durvet-Inc-Nu...e=UTF8&qid=1367024250&sr=8-1&keywords=nustock

 

[TipihlowLadies]

Are they getting into the waterer? What kind of waterer do you have? And you're certain the bedding is completely dry?

Yes they seem to be taking a swim just noticed them doing the lay down in the water. I use 1.5 gal. plastic water jar. will build up higher maybe this will stop it. Temp is 93 maybe trying to cool off. Thanks for the help!